News

Sainsbury’s work put back

Despite an assurance that work on a new Sainsbury’s store in Cardigan would start next month it can be revealed that once again the project has been put back and after more than four years it appears the supermarket giants are no nearer to building the store.

And Ceredigion County Council chairman Cllr. John Adams-Lewis is adamant the Bathhouse site is also totally unsuitable for the proposed new hospital.

After several months on site Sainsbury’s announced in August 2011 that the store would open in July the following year with the creation of 200 jobs.

Work on a plateau for the store and a new link road from Bathhouse to Gwbert Road costing around £4.5m were completed more than 2 ½ years ago.

Towards the end of last year site developers Liberty Mercian put off building work until September this year and in June the company said additional surveys had been completed and engineers would know within a few weeks what was needed to stabilise the land.

Despite giving a commitment to the town Sainsbury’s could not say when the store would be built.

A company spokesman said “The developer is still looking at options to stabilise the site, which need to be agreed and completed. We cannot begin work on the store until the ground has been shown to be stable, so unfortunately we cannot give any firm dates at the moment,” said the spokesman.

Locals with knowledge of the Bathhouse site over several decades warned from the word go that the land was very wet and unsuitable for a 40,000sq.ft. store.

Now that there are major and possibly insurmountable land slippage problems, many residents say that building a supermarket on the site should not have been contemplated.

Not prepared to mince his words Cllr. Adams-Lewis said “It is laughable. More and more people are asking if five years from now Sainsbury’s will be saying they are waiting to stabilize the land.”

Recalling flying over the site in his plane after heavy rain earlier this year pilot Cllr. Adams-Lewis said “I have photographs showing the land resembling a lake and I couldn’t believe anyone would want to build on it.

“There is no doubt that the proposed hospital site is also unsuitable and I’m sure this will emerge in due course. We were told that a topographic survey had been conducted but nothing has been said about that since,” he said.